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IMO it is a scheme problem... we lack some positions with the ability to play man coverage and not mixing in other concepts like different zone coverages would help to keep the opposing O off balance IMO

Right. The linebackers have been a massive weak point on this defense since Bill Davis took that job.

Saying "it's been two seasons but I think we're close to not being ass" isn't exactly encouraging. It's not like we've seen much progress to back that up – plus, to say that after two years of poor linebacker play you might be close to fixing the issues that are clearly schematic is embarrassing for a position coach at a program like Ohio State.

When I walked in this morning and saw the flag was at half mast I thought, "Alright, another bureaucrat ate it." but then I saw it was Li'l Sebastian. Half mast is too high. Show some damn respect.

I am not saying that Bill Davis is or is not a good position coach but what does the positions coach have to do with a scheme that calls for the LBers to blitz on almost every play? It's not Bill Davis that calls for the LBers to get lost behind the tackles every play. The defensive problems are on Schiano and Meyer for letting him do it.

I’ve got a real uneasy feeling about this matchup. It’s the least confident I’ve felt going into a game all season. It may just be jet lag due to the news that Bosa’s season is over. His leadership and impact on the defense cannot be discounted, i.e., the Iowa game wasn’t going well up to the point where he was ejected but then all the air seemed to go out of the balloon. Both coaches and players need to step up.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

One thing for sure, they aren’t looking past Purdue... This game is a gut check, and is a watershed moment for the season... Make a statement, and build upon it into November.... or simply show up, and an ugly November awaits us...

Same. This is the game that will define their season. Win big ... and you can start dreaming of championships. Lose (or play poorly and get lucky) ... and it will be on to next year. If this team can't beat Purdue soundly they have no chance against TTUN or Alabama/Clemson/ND/Georgia.

Same. This is the game that will define their season. Win big ... and you can start dreaming of championships. Lose (or play poorly and get lucky) ... and it will be on to next year. If this team can't beat Purdue soundly they have no chance against TTUN or Alabama.

Fixed.

Notre Dame just got lucky to pull out a home win against Pitt...A 3-4 Pitt that has been blown out by every decent team they played (aside from ND).

Clemson has played with fire twice this year, and hasn't beaten a team with a pulse yet.

Georga just got exposed by LSU. Yeah LSU is a great story with our boy Joe, but their offense is not solid enough that they should be beating a team that was considered the #2 team in the country 36-16 and the game wasn't even as close as the score indicates.

All OSU needs is a win. Big win is great, small win means the same thing...we got through an extremely late bye week unscathed after a few tough road tests, and can finally get these guys some rest and have them heal up before the final stretch. We were eeking out wins in 2014. Barely beat Minnesota, Indiana hung close late in the game...sound familiar? This was also in November, not October, and the team pulled it together. Right now Alabama looks unbeatable...but they have yet to be tested much, especially away from home. And if Saban wants to find out what September Heisman and NC's look like, have him give Michigan a ring. They will tell you all about being hyped like no other, having the future Heisman winner already anointed, all before we get into the meat of conference play. It's all about when your team comes together and plays it's best ball. We have to hope for OSU that it's after next weeks bye. I am as frustrated with the LB/defensive play as anyone else. But just like in years past, take away the big plays OSU has given up and the defense is at the top of the CFB ladder. Unlike in years past, our QB is an absolutely gunslinger that is also as cool as a cucumber. Dude is losing, guys dropping balls, on the road in a whiteout and he shrugs it off and keeps firing and wins the game. I'm counting on the coaches to turn it around on the other side of the ball.

To Saban credit he knows about January National Titles and Heisman. Coaches would probably be wise to listen to him. I think he has 5 titles since 2000 and a couple heisman. Or the equivalent of Coach Meyer,Jimbo Fisher, and Dabo Swinney combined.

Yeah, ill believe when I see it. Theyve regressed (somehow) since the start of the year. LBs might as well not be on the field. Purdue wins this game unless they completely overhaul defensive personnel and the scheme. OSU wont stop Purdue much, if at all, playing as they have recently.

Linebacker play has improved, and especially considering their best performing LB was out last week vs. Minny. With him back this week, I think they'll be fine. Not the Silver Bullets by any means, but much better than they were earlier in the year

It's a process. I remember Tress talking week to week every season about "getting better."

I do think/hope Urban's taking the opportunity to re-think the parts of his philosophy & approach that lead to massive player & coaching turnover year-in, year-out. I think it's a major contributor to the struggles we're seeing.

Thank god Saban is finally seeing this too. Losing Smart and then Pruitt in quick succession, this is the worst Bama defense we've seen in some time. Unfortunately it's matched up with arguably the best Bama offense Saban has ever had.

I think if we had to play Bama tomorrow, it would end roughly 45-35 Bama. I really can't tell just how good this Bama offense is until they play a D with a pulse, but I don't think they'd have any problem putting up points against us right now. Defense has time to improve though, seems like we have this issue every year early season.

We do seem to allow big plays every year... but we eventually show glimpses of how great our D can be. When it comes this year, I don’t know. What I do know, is that I’m not ready to think Purdue is gonna beat us.

You can not coach speed and that is what the Buckeyes lack at LB and safety.

I went looking for 40 times for our LBs but couldn't find that. On the surface I would dispute this for a couple of reasons. Other than Borland, all of our LBs are 4 and 5 star recruits. You aren't graded that high if you are slow. However, your comment is inaccurate at another level. Football speed is indeed coachable. Because football speed comes from reaction time. If a player is reacting faster, it means he isn't thinking. He has instant recognition AND instant reaction. This comes from experience and coaching.

You dead on. These are the elite of the elite when being recruited. You don’t get to be a 4/5* being slow. I know stars ain’t everything. However these guys were handpicked by the staff. They are not leftovers from programs that nobody wanted. You are correct about teaching speed it can be taught. My son plays little kid flag football. After learning about angles it has made him way way quicker to the flags (grabbing them is another story). Reaction time can be sped up by understanding the process and knowing what to do. I am a factory worker and it’s no different there. Guys that are better trained do better work. They do it quicker without having to be told. It is part of the bosses job to make sure they are up to speed. The same as a coach it’s his job to get them up to speed.Coach Meyer is the cook he picked the ingredients. If the food tastes bad then he has no where to look but mirror

There aren't any Devin Bush's out there but I don't think we have a foot-speed problem. They are faster than most. It is an eye-speed problem. They aren't seeing things fast enough and that doesn't seem to be developing under Davis.

What else is he supposed to say? “Yeah, we’re not confident that we can stop the slant or the run game.” That would go over great. The Bosa loss is hard but in my humble opinion the greater losses have been Fickell and Coombs. I still believe though. When you play sloppy and still win by double digits, it’s not a good sign for your opponents. If this team actually does fix the back 7, they’re not losing a game this year. Big if, I know.

I don't take typing shit like that lightly. Always try to keep in mind that these are kids/young men - unpaid, at that - and my comments are public. Gives me no pleasure to say that, but I've been thinking hard about it for a few weeks now. Bad.

We are going to give up yards and clearly we fix things just look at the first half scores and yards vs the second half scores and yards. It is football things happen and you make corrections to fix them. Every team is going give us their best and it is our job to stop it. Things do not happen overnight. Go Bucks. Beat Purdue

I hope that it translates into the play on the field. Some plays are going to be made against any defense, but I just get frustrated that other teams are consistently moving the ball more or less at will against the defense. The scoring defense has gotten better but that would not get much worse if you hold them on their own 25 or 30 and give the offense better field position.

I hope we see an improved defense this week. Although Purdue has play makers.

From the interviews I have heard, it sounds like Indiana and Minnesota in particular did things against OSU that they never really showed on tape before. Or only a handful of times. I should imagine to expect that or at least plays to challenge linebackers and the safeties as much as possible.

Foe every big play we give up, we completely shut them down or make a big play. But people focus on the big plays forgetting the INTs for TDs. I believe once the youth and mistakes are ironed out, that this team indeed will have a very good defense. I feel like the corners are very close to being special. Teams having us where they wanted 3 weeks in a row have scored about 0 points in the late game. So it seems to be focus. When we get focused, we will be very very good on D IMO.

This is reasonable to a point. The turnovers are great but I think it is also concern of what a more talented team can do with the same plays. To see Minnesota move the ball more or less at will most of the game. The turnovers were great but they would not have been quite as needed if they tightened up on some other plays.

Even with the turnovers, the secondary is way below expectation levels with how many interceptions they have gotten this year. That said, last week they got two (with a chance for three) and was pretty good.

After watching OSU for a long time, has given some very talented teams that went far fits. OSU beat Minn by 1 TD in '14 and won it all in the playoffs. I have seen very high-regarded D's give up big plays with the game really on the line. This one has been stepping up with the game on the line, but everyone is freaking out about how the look in the first and third quarters. That is fine, but we aren't coaches and can't do anything about it but gripe. And again, some really good teams have shown similar struggles. This one is much younger and more inexperienced, but with a lot of upside. I have confidence, though I am as worried as anyone. The things we should be able to fix seem rather easy. A lot of times its just alignement and stuff like that.

It is a high risk high reward defensive scheme. OSU should be good enough however, not to be near last in the country in giving up explosive plays and TDs of greater than 80 yards. If they are however, they should also be leading the nation in sacks, TFLs, first doesn't allowed, and take always.

Letterman Row did a neat film study session on why slants and big runs have been such an issue, and it looks to me like it's about 80% schematic, and 20% technique and being aggressive enough in our run fits. .

Our LBs are playing up within about 1 yard of the LOS. It's great when it works, because there's nowhere for the RB to go. However, when a RB gets to the second level, there's no one left to make a tackle. We need to have our LBs sitting further back from the LOS so they can read and react to fill gaps rather than trying to shoot them immediately and losing the RB in the scrum.

For slants, we man up on the outside/in the slot and have our LBs assigned to RB, QB, and TE it seems like. Our LBs are still playing really close to the line, while the slot corner is playing man coverage with a 7-10yd cushion. The LBs crash to their assignments, but it leaves a MASSIVE gap in the middle of the field between the LOS and the Safeties. Slants are one of the easiest routes in the world to throw for any QB, and you simply cannot give up that much space in the middle of your defense (I've seen 10- 15yd gaps between the LOS and safeties at times, with absolutely no one in that area of the field, exception of the trailing CB). We need to show that look and then drop back into a zone to take it away. I guarantee we'll get a pick since teams that are scouting us are so used to seeing that look and almost always adjust or hot route into a slant.

1 or 2 picks with a LB dropping and undercutting the route would stop teams from calling that against us with the quickness.

It is, to a point, but we have seen a similar scheme be vulnerable to TE's but not really the slant on this consistent of a basis. They really need to do something to tighten the middle of the field. Those quick routes are a problem. And teams are getting quite a bit on them each and every time they go there.

I agree with those saying that playing the LBs back off of the line may be the better move. It is not quite as aggressive but they can better judge the run game and be more of a threat to deter screen passes and help the corners or safeties.

It was striking how often that was getting hit against them. And it is impossible for me to imagine that other teams do not go for that sort of thing against OSU until they stop it. And they only did that a few times against the Gophers really.

What is he supposed to say? "I'm bad at my job and we're going to keep giving up big plays on a regular basis against inferior competition". I don't find this encouraging at all...it's just coach speak.

I'll believe it when I see it. Unfortunately for us fans, and fans of our own O dominating this Sat night in WL is supposed to be cold, rainy and windy 25+ mph so I'm not sure we'll see many big plays with throws down the field from either team.

Must be switching to more of a zone where we keep eyes on the QB and ball at all times. If we continue to play hyper aggressive man to man, our young lbers and safeties will continue to miss assignments and lanes. Comes with the territory.

While watching Hilliard show he should have started since game 1, I remembered he didn't back a line in game since high school with his injuries. Maybe it's just clicking for him like Little Animal, Kwon, Hawk, Big Kat....